Alabama

Overnight Sensation*

So, once again, it's that time of year when we announce to all our friends and family and Facebook readers our list of things that we will fail to do over the course of the next 366 days (this time around, at least). Lose weight, exercise, quit smoking, floss twice a day, finally see a doctor about that strange rash... All these things that we see will improve our lives and make everything better.

But change doesn't happen overnight, outside of the occasional drunken miscalculation. Real, lasting change of impact takes longer, a gradual building that turns action into habit, the strange and difficult into commonplace.

This year marked the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind. I read article after article remembering how this single disc, 12 tracks (13, counting that '90s staple, the hidden track) of raw angst, changed the music business in the blink of an eye, erasing hair metal and bringing a sense of the real back to record stores across America. And it's a great disc -- I played through two copies on my own, learning Cobain's weird chord structures and pissing off the neighbors at 3 AM.

But the change was hardly instantaneous. Nirvana had already put out Bleach a few years before, and many of their sonic peers (including the Pixies, Dinosaur, Jr., Sonic Youth, and Mudhoney) had been plugging away in the same vein for years. Yes, Nirvana did change the face and soul of music with Nevermind, but it was the tipping point of the change, not the sole source.

The same thing can be said of any landmark in music (or any entertainment medium you want to pick, for that matter). The Beatles were preceeded by American bluesmen and Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley. The Sex Pistols were a bastard offspring of Iggy Pop, Television, and the New York Dolls (in spirit if not in sound). Find me that defining moment, and I'll show you its parents (or, at the very least, the uncle that let it drink PBR from the mini-fridge in the garage).

All this to say: change is possible. In fact, change is easy, once you get the ball rolling, and it's good. But while the moment of impact may be a pinpoint on a timeline, that point has a leading trail that built to it.

Whether you want to have a better smile by flossing twice daily, or you want to be the next over-played-and-mauled-by-mall-walking-teenagers-everywhere rock 'n' roll fairytale, it takes a little determination, a little warming up, and perhaps even a little thinking outside of your comfort zone. As Frank Zappa famously said, "Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."

When you find yourself faltering a bit in February or June, eating that extra dessert or smoking that random cigarette when you've had a few shots too many, keep all this in mind, and double down. Just remind yourself that Kurt Cobain wouldn't have quit just because things got rough.